


pain

by perhapssoon



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Gen, Plot Twist, i am so salty about this i took matters into my own hands, ns9 spoilers, we need him alive okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 04:19:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15380508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapssoon/pseuds/perhapssoon
Summary: He's never felt pain before now.





	pain

**Author's Note:**

> i'm still salty, okay?

He can feel it. The Elemental Power of Destruction. It’s pulling at his wiring, twisting at the connective fibers in his joints.  It amazes him at how much pain he feels.

Nindroids don’t feel pain.  Sure, they can be processed to feel an imitation of it, whether physically or emotionally, but as far as he knew, he wasn’t programmed that way.

He had once asked Ultra Violet how it felt when she accidentally got stuck between two doors and someone wasn’t looking and rammed her from behind.

“It hurts,” she had replied.  "A lot.“

He understood the concept of ‘hurt’ but the lack of experience didn’t really make his opinion valid.  When his arm was ripped out of its socket as a result from two motorcycles and another nindroid, he didn’t feel anything.  It was normal, in his mind, to have various body parts scattered in random places, to slowly and methodically twist and click them back together.

But this? This was pain.

His limbs are, in a way, stretching beyond their limit, his wiring managing to hold his body together, but he knows it won’t last long.

_Please! He’s just a machine, built to follow orders!_

His Dark Lord, the one that he and the rest of the Sons had gone through so much to resurrect was now the cause of his destruction. And it was his fault.

Failure to capture Lloyd, failure to hold against the Elemental Masters who came in at the last second, failure to in hoping that he’d have at least one more day to live.

It was too soon. All of it.

But it was his responsibility. What kind of general lets their coworkers and subordinates get the blame if they were the one to call through and command the mission?

_My orders were to not fail._

Not him.

He doesn’t express emotion often. The Sons know that quite well.  He usually makes his decisions without consulting anyone, which sometimes is a good thing and sometimes a bad thing.

This, in his mind, was a good thing.  As long as no one else was torn apart like this, he was fine with experiencing pain for the first and last time.

_A fine machine.  But, 'fine’ isn’t good enough._

And then the electrical current starts going past the limits of his wires. The result feels like he’s been thrown underneath a conveyor belt covered in sharp spikes that are slowly grinding into him, along with the feeling of being ripped apart. Pieces of gears and switches dislodge and rattle around inside his body. He barely aware of them falling to the ground.

Almost simultaneously, about ten or so wires suddenly snap, sending more electricity through his body.  His processors are fried, but he has a feeling that Garmadon is talking. Or is it Harumi? And then more pain racks his body.

_The whole is not worth the sum of his parts._

Now he’s almost glad that no one else was in charge of the operation.  If this is how much pain he – a nindroid who can’t feel pain – feels, he can’t imagine what it’ll be like to a human.

Or maybe he can’t imagine it because most of his servers are now scorching hot and burning through his head and body.

His arms are the first that gives. It isn’t surprising, considering that they have the least amount of resistance to being torn apart. He only has a total of three seconds before he’ll be gone. His legs loosen and one of them snaps free, leaving the other to dangle by a few wires.

And suddenly the pressure pulling him apart is gone. He drops to the ground, and he’s aware of Harumi rushing past him towards Garmadon.

His sensors are slow and rather damaged, but he can faintly see Ultra and Killow facing off against Garmadon— wait, what?

His friends are actually fighting the Dark Lord, however futile their efforts are, they had succeeded in distracting Garmadon enough to stop killing him.

He doesn’t know what to think about that. He just wants to help them, though he is in no condition to do so.

Harumi’s using one of his katanas to fight the Dark Lord, her expression twisted in something akin to regret and determination. Ultra’s holding her own against the Destruction blasts while Killow is holding Garmadon down to the throne to prevent him from getting better shots.

A stray bolt of dark purple streaks past him and while he’s concentrated on that, another strikes him in the chest.

Everything flickers out, like a giant TV screen.

—

When he is reactivated, he finds that his friends have somehow put him back together.

"The ninja helped,” Ultra tells him once all the hubbub dies down.

“?nodamraG tuoba tahW” he asks.

Ultra looks around to make sure no one is watching before nearly crushing him in a hug.  He can hear metal grinding on metal and taps her side so she loosens her grip. He hesitantly returns the hug, and Ultra says quietly, “We’re on the ninja’s side now.  They don’t trust us that much yet, but no way in hell was I going to let my friend be killed in front of me for something stupid like failure.”

“.ouy knahT” he replies, and Ultra just squeezes him harder.

He can see droplets of water on the floor, and he’s pretty sure it’s not him.

“?gniyrc uoy erA…” he asks, and Ultra pulls away to smile at him.  It’s a genuine one, not one of those half-crazed looks. The tears are soaking her bandanna.

“No, of course not,” she says, and pulls him back into the embrace.

He doesn’t know what’s gotten into her, but he isn’t going to complain.


End file.
